The Importance Of Plagiarism In College

Plagiarism is an increasing large issue on college campuses, a habit to most of the student. According to the article ‘’The Plagiarism Plague’’, the findings on the survey made to 50,000 students on more than 60 campuses was that 70 percent of the students admitted that they cheated. Half of the students surveyed admitted that one or more times made serious cheating on writing assignments, with 77 percent of the students surveyed said that cheating was not a serious issue.

Almost every student has been there: staring at his/her computer trying to get an assignment done when they have twenty other obligations swinging over his/her head. Students are trying to find the fastest and easiest way to get the assignment completed. Many students will plagiarize intentionally or unintentionally at some point of their educational career. Plagiarism is the act of taking someone else’s work or ideas then calling that work their own. There is no acknowledgement being given to the original author. In Trip Gabriel’s “Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age,” the internet has created new challenges for students being able to give credit to ideas and information. Often, Students do not understand that information on

In the article, “Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age” written by author Trip Gabriel, there are multiple views on the aspects of plagiarism. Some people refuse to take plagiarism seriously, having a strong educational background as foundation as well as respect for other individuals work. Plagiarism is a serious offense and often considered a form of theft. Consequences for plagiarism can vary depending upon the campus, but can lead up to expulsion. Plagiarism commonly known as taking pieces of ideas or words and phrases from someone without giving credit.

Plagiarism is defined as “the presentation of work for credit that is not [a writer’s] own” (Johanson, 2010, p. 267). The information obtained by a writer from another source should be cited in the text and referenced when paraphrasing or quoting another author’s material (APA, 2010). Student plagiarism can be avoided by using electronic resources or software to prevent unintentional plagiarism, educating students on how to properly cite and reference material in an academic writing, and providing information to students about the consequences of plagiarizing.

In the growing age of the internet, it has become easier and easier for students to plagiarize. In many ways plagiarism hasn't changed at all, it is still a shortcut students may take to get a paper or assignment done as fast as possible. It can sometimes be difficult to recognize what plagiarism is and why it is such an inexcusable action. Understanding plagiarism is one key to becoming a better writer: knowing what plagiarism is, the importance of documentation and when to use MLA or APA.

As one begins to grasp the concept of Schroth’s (2012) article The Plagiarism Plague, it is easy to identify the author’s dissatisfaction for plagiarism and the negative connotations he has for someone who is involved in this heinous offense. He initiates and summarizes his commentary with personal stories of how plagiarism has affected him. Schroth offers several solutions for the copyright issue that is upon us; he states, “the sanction for plagiarism must be at least an F on the paper, accompanied by a letter in the student's file to be consulted if it happens again, with the understanding that a second offense would mean expulsion.” Schroth was also sure to mention the collective approach necessary from all educators for his solution to be implemented. He believes the “policy will be effective only with leadership from the president and full cooperation from the faculty.” The writer goes on to explain how plagiarism has become an epidemic in this society and the effects of its prevalence thereof. Although plagiarism has become rampant in this society, it is still immoral and unethical. College students continue to plagiarize however, because they refuse to regard their education as a top priority and it has become culturally acceptable for people to falsify information without any serious penalties for their dishonesty.

Almost all colleges enforce policy when students commit plagiarism. With regard to plagiarism, two authors’ arguments differ. One of authors, Emma Teitel, a student in Dalhousie University, argued that the punishment of plagiarism is un-fare. She was punished for plagiarism in her third year. She claimed that she just made a technical mistake on her essay and did not intentionally plagiarize from another author’s work (Teitel, November 8, 2011). On the other hand, according to Todd Pettigrew, a professor in Kings University, colleges should make a rule clearly for plagiarized assignments depending on the number of offenses. For example, for student who commits plagiarism the second time should get a stronger punishment than the first offense.

Being a college student is hard. College requires plenty of work. Some students have other things to do besides going to school; some of them need to work in order to pay for their tuition. When school isn’t the only thing students have to worry about, they might get behind in their classes, but they can’t fail them so they have to find out a way to stay on both their job and school. A large amount of students are pushed into cheating; they do it so often that suddenly it becomes a habit. Nowadays, plagiarism is extremely popular. Students don’t like using their brain anymore; they just copy and paste. To avoid plagiarism, students should do their own work; learn how to cite in a proper form, and understand that plagiarism can result in

Evering and Moorman also noted that McCabe said, “Many high school students believe...that if information is on the Internet, it is public knowledge and does not need to be footnoted – even if it’s quoted verbatim”. Evering and Moorman say students who plagiarize are only representing someone else’s work instead of their own. Jobs as teachers are to help student create, develop and perfect a student’s own work and abilities however, they cannot do so with students plagiarizing. Regardless of the consequence, students still find the need to plagiarize. Evering and Moorman says it’s because student are too lazy and just don’t feel like doing the assignment but also the “underdeveloped sense of integrity...lack of

With the ever-increasing wealth of information provided by a simple Internet search, students are finding their resource options growing. From hundreds of topic specific sources to completely written essays, students are challenged to use their own words. Michelle Cleary addresses the issues of plagiarism faced by students today while giving real-life solutions from an instructor’s view in her article, "Top 10 Reasons Students Plagiarize & What Teachers Can Do about It (With Apologies to David Letterman)". From research methods to writing instructions, the author uses a cause and effect scenario to illustrate the plagiarism problems and suggests methods that encourage academic success. Students struggle not only with the temptation to plagiarize, but also worry about inadvertently plagiarizing, and the ramifications of their actions.

In “Academic Integrity and Student Plagiarism: a Question of Education, Not Ethics,” Susan Blum confronts the challenges associated with plagiarism, citation, and the education system. Initially, the author establishes plagiarism as a major problem on college campuses. Because previous approaches for dealing with plagiarism have been unsuccessful, many professors have turned to electronic software like Turnitin to identify student plagiarism (Blum 1). This means colleges and professors are desperate to find a solution to the increasing problem of plagiarism. Additionally, we see students are in need of a deeper understanding and education on the concept of plagiarism. Blum states, “Students must be persuaded of the value of citation - which

The problem of plagiarism can be seen in different areas. The most common is found in academics. Usually plagiarism is copying, stealing someone else ideas. A student who is found quilty of plagiarism can be suspended or expelled (Nall and Gherwash, 2012). When comp arrives the policies of Gorge Brown ands the definitions of plagiarism are virtually the same, but the presentation of rules concerning plagiarism are very different. While Gorge Brown is very concise, Seneca is more detailed, but lacks organization.

In such a cases, students usually do very little research on the particular subject and simply copy information from internet, make slight changes to the words and present it as own work. This is also considered serious plagiarism because the information taken has not been quoted and the source has not been cited. Brian Martin argues that a lot of students are victims of this type of plagiarism because the students are unaware of the correct method of referencing and are unaware of their educational institution policy on paraphrasing, therefore it is essential students to become familiar with the university rules regarding paraphrasing and always put quotation marks and cite the source of information.

The concept of plagiarism is remarkably personal and this has been a subject of debate. Most critics argue that not only does technologies like the internet and smart phones distract students but it makes students perform poorly in school, but they also argue that it increases their chances to plagiarized. For example, in a research conducted in a university about the assessment and evaluation in Higher Education, 75% of students strongly agreed that using someone’s work without citing their work is wrong. If many of students believe this, why do somer student plagiarized. As a student myself, I knew students that plagiarized. Though they knew their actions were bad, they wanted to get a good grade.Most believed that it was not a big deal

Students may have poor time-management skills or they may plan poorly for the time and effort required for research-based writing, and believe they have no choice but to plagia¬rize. Students may view the course, the assignment, the conventions of academic documenta¬tion, or the consequences of cheating as unimportant. Teachers may present students with assignments so generic or unparticularized that stu¬dents may believe they are justified in looking for canned responses. Instructors and institutions may fail to report cheating when it does occur, or may not enforce appropriate penalties. (http://www.wpacouncil.org). In The New Century Handbook, there are a few helpful ways described to avoid plagiarism. Step one is to take accurate, usable notes. Step two to record complete citation (bibliographic) information along with your notes. Step three is to determine when acknowledgment is needed. Step four; avoid copying and pasting information (text or graphics) from the Internet into your paper. Step